Kristen Stewart to play bisexual writer and activist Susan Sontag in new film

Sontag, a queer feminist icon, was particularly vocal about LGBTQ+ rights during the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Side by side black and white portraits of Susan Sontag and Kristen Stewart

Kristen Stewart will star in a new film depicting writer, philosopher, and queer activist Susan Sontag.

The film, which is tentatively titled Sontag, is based on Ben Moser’s biography, Sontag: Her Life and Work. The biopic will be directed by documentarian Kirsten Johnson and is described as a “metadrama” hybrid with documentary aspects to it.

 

During her lifetime, Sontag was an openly bisexual activist who supported a range of social justice issues, including the protests surrounding the Vietnam War. Additionally, the queer feminist icon was particularly vocal about LGBTQ+ rights during the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

She was married to a man at the age of 17 but divorced him in 1958, and in the late eighties, she began dating queer photographer Annie Leibovitz.

Sontag is best known for being able to effectively communicate complex ideas about human rights issues in digestible essays. She wrote a host of powerful nonfiction essays and novels, including Notes on ‘Camp’, Against Interpretation, and The Way We Live Now. She died in 2004.

Filming for the project will begin at the Berlin Film Festival. Gabrielle Tana, Co-Founder of Brouhaha Entertainment, said, “We are using Berlin to kick off the project by documentary filming Kristen as juror president, on how she will become Sontag… It will be a drama, but with a documentary aspect. Kirsten has a wonderful approach to storytelling, and that reflects that .”

https://twitter.com/alissamarie/status/1624059598544990210?s=20

 

In 2021, Stewart starred in the hauntingly beautiful film Spencer where she depicted the life of Princess Diana. She was nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Critics Choice Award for that role. She has also previously portrayed other influential figures including Joan Jett and Jean Seberg.

Kristen Stewart is a proud LGBTQ+ activist who has been portraying queer roles since 2014 when she stunned critics at the Cannes Film Festival with her performance in Clouds of Sils Maria, a drama portraying a lesbian love triangle.

Both the literary community and Kristen Stewart fans are thrilled over the Susan Sontag film.

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